Kathmandu. Finance Minister Rameshwor Prasad Khanal has said that the budget for the current fiscal year 2082/83 had been increased unnaturally, which is why it had to be reduced through half-yearly review.

Unveiling the half-yearly evaluation report of the budget for the fiscal year 2082/83 at a function organized at the Finance Ministry, Minister Khanal said that the budget estimate had to be reduced as the projects were not prepared in the budget. Similarly, he said that there is a lot of pressure on the federal reserve fund.

Through the half-yearly review of the budget, the government has reduced both the estimates of income and expenditure for the current fiscal year. Of the total budget of Rs 1,964.11 billion for this fiscal year, only 85.96 per cent or Rs 1,688.326 billion will be spent. Finance Minister Khanal said that there is pressure on the government’s reserve fund. He said that the budget priority has to be determined as the federal reserve fund is currently in deficit of Rs 130 billion.

Likewise, Finance Minister Khanal said that projects worth Rs 119 billion that were not prepared but were allocated in the budget have been postponed. He said that the budget freeze would be lifted if there is a situation to award the contract after completing the preparation of such projects. Out of the stalled projects, the budget of projects worth Rs 42 billion has already been released.

Finance Minister Khanal also blamed the recent political developments for not spending the budget as expected. “During the transition period after the Genji movement, the government’s focus was on ensuring security and discussing with political parties. As a result, various ministries have not been able to spend as expected,” he said.

Similarly, Finance Minister Khanal said that the construction of development projects has been delayed due to obstruction created by forest laws. He also clarified that the government has not been able to pay the responsibility of health insurance in the budget for the current fiscal year due to the pressure of resources.

“We are not in a position to bear the responsibility of health insurance within this budget. There is a problem in paying the obligations of health insurance as the budget has to be allocated for the elections,” said Khanal. According to him, the Ministry of Health and Population has not been able to clarify the exact amount of liabilities of around Rs 7 billion. Likewise, Finance Minister Khanal said that there would not be any weakness in security as the resources for the election were weak. According to the Ministry of Finance, around Rs 20 billion has been allocated for the upcoming elections.

On the occasion, Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Dr Prakash Shrestha, clarified that projects with less than three million investment have not been kept in the project bank.